Arthur Hood
Arthur Hood is a Hunter, one of the Special Infected enemies in the Valve video game Left 4 Dead. Personality Arthur, apart from his mutations and illness, is pretty much a regular teenaged boy. He's a bit quiet, but nonetheless very social and friendly. (Uh, perhaps a bit too friendly. Victims of his infamous tackle-hugs will understand what we mean.) He enjoys playing sports, is on a number of Game High's teams and has a prominent interest in parkour. He'd like nothing more than to have a day in which he can just hang out with his friends and not worry about too much. That is, until he got 'the flu.' Arthur doesn't delve too much into his disease with others, but judging by his odd looks and somewhat raspy voice, people can tell from the get-go that what he has is more than a twenty four hour bug. Though he's far from the mindless killing machine that the infected become, he has a few odd tendencies that cause people to become nervous around him. For example, he sometimes growls when scared or angered. He doesn't appear to eat or drink much (but, oddly, he loves candy and is attracted to the smell of sugar) and is much more active at night than during the day. Arthur is easily freaked out by flashing or bright lights and loud sounds, which sometimes send him into a bit of a frenzy. He also hates guns of any kind and is quick to snatch them out of the hands of anyone who he thinks could have an itchy trigger finger. Arthur is very defensive about his condition because of this. He doesn't like it when people call him a monster or a vampire or, L.O.G. forbid, a zombie. He's still human, he's just a little... different. However, he does realize that what he is isn't natural and can be dangerous. This interferes with his desire to have fun with his classmates, as he's always worried that he'll hurt or even kill someone because of what he is. Though not as jumpy as Duplicity, Arthur is always cautious and careful, maybe even a bit nervous in extreme circumstances. He overthinks everything and always wonders what could go wrong with any seemingly perfect scenario. Better safe than sorry, after all. He's most certainly a conflicted individual, worrying to the point of over-the-top angst about hurting and infecting others as well as trying to fit in as many social gatherings as he can, but if you can catch him at a time when his mind isn't on the topic of protecting others from himself, he can be a pretty nice dude. He prefers not to just be define by his disease, but what makes him a human being. If you get to know him, Arthur is very approachable and, while not much of a talker, enjoys partaking in conversations with others. He's a great listener and, on the topic of listening, also has a great ear for music. He actually listens to a lot in his spare time and knows quite a lot about the Midnight Riders and is quick to give stats and trivia in his spare time. All in all, Arthur is normal and would just like to be treated that way. Appearance Arthur is pretty ghoulish looking, with a wiry frame and long limbs. It could be worse, given that all he has are a couple of scars and scratches as opposed to boils or tumors, but he's still not much to look at. His skin is discoloured and appears to have a somewhat bluish sheen. He has shaggy black hair that, in addition to his hoodie, obscures his eyes completely. His hoodie is dark blue and covered in what looks to be a combination of blood and dirt and is torn in some places. He has, for some odd reason, duct-tape wrapped around his wrists and hands. He wears khaki shorts, exposing his thin, pale legs. He has a Band-Aid on his left knee, in a hasty attempt to cover a really bad wound. He wears once-white tennis shoes, now badly beaten up. Relationships Family Arthur is rather unclear about who his parents actually are. On his student file, it says that he's supposed to be 'Son Of The Hunter', but he's not so sure. Are his parents still alive? Are they even infected? And if they are, are they even the same type of mutation as him? He spends much more time than he should worrying about these questions. As far as we know, Arthur is the only one of his family left 'alive', if you can call this living. Friends Arthur is an interesting case. He's afraid of infecting other people, yet he's a pretty social guy. Therefore, he's somewhat conflicted about whether or not to hang out with other kids. Most of the time his desire to have fun overrules his fear of hurting others. Besides, they're all just computer programs. Nobody can actually get sick, right? Arthur will flit from one circle of friends to the other, but tends to stick close to the other people from Valve. The TF2 girls are a pretty cool bunch, though he's not particularly fond of all of those guns they carry... Especially that one girl's flamethrower. Flamethrowers and him do not mix. The only person in that group he's scared of more than the aforementioned Lucinda Incendiary is the Medic's daughter. Magnilde, because of her odd interest in him, scares him and he wants absolutely nothing to do with her. Being torn apart and examined is definitely not on his priority list. The Portal crew is rather interesting, with all their science and robots who can't get hurt by germs and guns that don't actually shoot bullets. He likes them quite a lot. He's never really interacted with anybody from Half-Life, but he'd like to. He's heard that they have zombies of some sort over there and people tend to think of him as a zombie... so maybe they'd get along. We don't know. He's on good terms with M, as they both are somewhat cautious people. They both know they can cause great harm if they aren't careful, so they've bonded over their shared nervousness. He appreciates that they don't treat him differently from anybody else and are careful about his sensitivities, but he does wish that they wouldn't horde all that sugar to themselves. So what if Rare Candies are only for leveling up Pokemon? They're really tasty! His roommate is Shifty. He and the purple-skinned pirate get along alright, all things considered. He could be a bit more sensitive about using the 'z' word around him, but the chocolate bars he gives him more than make up for that. In turn, he enjoys listening to him read his writing. He doesn't know about these Barons he's always going on about, nor does the word 'Tinkerbat' mean much to him, but he smiles and nods and asks questions only when appropriate. Pet Arthur knows for certain that he had a dog prior to getting his disease. He also knows for mostly certain that his dog is no longer alive. Now he owns a cockroach named Jimmy that he keeps in a terrarium. He has no idea how to take care of a cockroach, but it doesn't really matter, since cockroaches can supposedly survive everything. It's okay if he forgets to feed him and Jimmy seems completely immune to the virus, so he doesn't have to worry about infecting him. Romance Friends who are girls? Yeah, for sure. Arthur's friends with plenty of girls and is rather close with some of them. But girlfriends? The thought has never really crossed Arthur's slowly decaying mind. If it's ever brought up, he'll launch into one of his speeches about germs and contamination and how it just wouldn't work out. So, he's single for now and plans to stay that way for a quite a while. Gallery File:Sweatshirt_wearing_wuss.png Trivia *Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, inspired Arthur's first name (e.g. They both begin with 'Art') whereas his last name came from the ever-present sweatshirt that Hunters are clothed in. *In-game, Hunters leap and pin players down as their main means of attack. Arthur still has this feature, however he uses it for much less lethal tackle-hugs. *Wait, so Arthur is sensitive to bright lights, loud sounds and has a sweet tooth? I thought those were the characteristics of a Witch, not a Hunter... Perhaps his mom was one of those or something... *On the topic of Arthur's somewhat mysterious parentage, he appears to be very cautious. As in, 'better safe than sorry'. And the character in-game who says that phrase has the possibility of becoming a Hunter after being infected. So, does that mean he has some relationship with the Church Guy? *Arthur's mention of vampires in his quote is a nod to the playable character Francis, who seems to think that the Infected, who behave like zombies, are actually vampires. *Apparently Arthur must have been born in or visited Georgia sometime in life, as he has distinct memories of visiting Whispering Oaks Amusement Park as a child. He also remembers terrified of clowns. *Arthur's cockroach, Jimmy, shares his name with the 'famous' racer, Jimmy Gibbs Jr. It's unknown whether or not this connection was intentional on Arthur's part. *Arthur is claustrophobic and demophobic. He hates crowds and tightly packed spaces. I wonder how he would deal with being surrounded by a horde of Infected like the players so often are in-game. *While Arthur is pretty much terrified Magnilde, he also has some ambivalence regarding TED. Not because he's secretly evil or anything, but because of his name. He's kind of grown fearing people with that name. Y'know, as in the infamous phrase 'No Zombie Is Safe From Chicago Ted'. He doesn't mean to discriminate against those who just happen to share a name, but just in case this core does come from Chicago, he tries to avoid him as much as possible. Category:Original Characters Category:Original Charaters boy Category:Valve Category:Left 4 Dead Category:Missy's Peeps